Öhquist, Rita

Öhquist, Rita Image 1

Rita Öhquist, ca 1927, © Studio Rembrandt Helsinki
Rita Öhquist (i.e. Margarita Emilia Winter) was born in 1884 in Travenort, Schleswig-Holstein, and died in 1968 in Philippsthal, Hessen. She was an important German translator from Finnish and Swedish.

In her second marriage (1917) with Johannes Öhquist, professor at Helsinki University, later cultural attaché at the Finnish Embassy in Berlin, she learnt both languages and translated prose works by among others Aleksis Kivi, Nobel prize winner Frans Eemil Sillanpää, Aino Kallas and Zacharias Topelius, but even children’s books and doctoral theses.